Unmasking the Creator

Looking to science to define the undefinable, Lee Strobel finds the 'master Designer.'

Excerpted from "The Case for a Creator" by Lee Strobel. Copyright 2004 by Zondervan. Used by permission of The Zondervan Corporation.

As I reviewed the avalanche of information from my investigation, I found the evidence for an intelligent designer to be credible, cogent, and compelling. Actually, in my opinion the combination of the findings from cosmology and physics by themselves were sufficient to support the design hypothesis. All of the other data simply built an even more powerful cumulative case that ended up overwhelming my objections.

But who or what is this master Designer? Like playing a game of connect-the-dots, each one of the six scientific disciplines I investigated contributed clues to unmasking the identity of the Creator.

The evidence of cosmology demonstrates that the cause of the universe must be an uncaused, beginningless, timeless, immaterial, personal being endowed with freedom of will and enormous power. In the area of physics, Collins established that the Creator is intelligent and has continued to be involved with his creation after the Big Bang.

The evidence of astronomy, showing that the Creator was incredibly precise in creating a livable habitat for the creatures he designed, logically implies that he has care and concern for them. Also, Gonzales and Richards presented evidence that the Creator has built at least one purpose into his creatures-to explore the world he has designed, and therefore to perhaps discover him through it.

Not only do biochemistry and the existence of biological information affirm the Creator's activity after the Big Bang, but they also show he's incredibly creative. Evidence for consciousness, as Moreland said, helps establish that the Creator is rational, gives us a basis for understanding his omnipresence, and even suggests that life after death is credible.

This is not a picture of the god of deism, who supposedly formed the universe but then abandoned it. The abundant evidence for the Creator's continued activity in the universe after the initial creation event discredits deism as a credible possibility.

Pantheism, the idea that the Creator and universe are co-existent, also falls short of accounting for the evidence, because it cannot explain how the universe came into existence. After all, if the pantheistic god didn't exist prior to the physical universe, then it would not be capable of bringing the universe into being.

Also, Craig explained how the scientific principle of Ockham's razor shaves away the multiple gods of polytheism, leaving us with a single Creator. In addition, the personal nature of the Creator argues against the impersonal divine force that's at the center of some New Age religions.

In contrast, however, the portrait of the Creator that emerges from the scientific data is uncannily consistent with the description of the God whose identity is spelled out in the pages of the Bible.

Creator? "In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.

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Unique? "You were shown these things so that you might know that the Lord is God; besides him there is no other."

Uncaused and timeless? "Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God."

Immaterial? "God is spirit."

Personal? "I am God Almighty."

Freedom of will? "And God said, `Let there be light,' and there was light."

Intelligent and rational? "How many are your works, O Lord! In wisdom you made them all; the earth is full of your creatures."

Enormously powerful? "The Lord is.great in power."

Creative? "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I that full well."

Caring? "The earth is full of his unfailing love."

Omnipresent? "The heavens, even the highest heaven, cannot contain you."

Has given humankind purpose? "For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisibible.everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him."

Provides for life after death? "He will swallow up death forever."

As the apostle Paul wrote two millennia ago: "For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-his eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made [that is, his creation], so that men are without excuse."

The question of whether these qualities might also describe the deities of any other world religions became moot once I added the evidence that I discovered through the study of ancient history and archeology.

As I described in my book The Case for Christ, the convincing evidence establishes the essential reliability of the New Testament, demonstrates the fulfillment of ancient prophecies in the life of Jesus of Nazareth against all odds, and supports Jesus' resurrection as being an actual event that occurred in time and space. Indeed , his return from the dead is an unprecedented and supernatural feat that authenticated his claim to being the one-and-only Son of God.